Not Like They Used To
by inky2
Summary: Cloud's appearance at the end of the game comes as an unpleasant surprise for Cid Highwind. Soon, however, they set off on an adventure. (Work in Progress)
1. Time to Talk to the Goat

**Not Like They Used To**  
a Kingdom Hearts/Final Fantasy fic by inky

* * *

**  
Disclaimer:** Kingdom Hearts belongs to Square Enix and Disney Interactive. Final Fantasy 7 and 8 belong to Square Enix. I am using their characters and situations without permission.  
**Warnings:** game spoilers and language (what do you expect from Cid?)  
**Note:** for Cys

* * *

**  
Chapter 1: Time to Talk to the Goat**

There are many fates worse than being stranded on a desert planet.  
  
You could begin to fall in love, only to be forced to watch the girl's murderer pin her like an entomologist's butterfly. You could wind up in a wheelchair as a mindless vegetable. Your world could shatter and dissolve into Darkness all around you.  
  
Cloud snorted at his thoughts. Been there, done that.  
  
It didn't matter that he'd gotten off easily after reneging on his deal with Hades. What mattered was continuing his search, and that meant catching a ride off this planet.  
  
Olympus Coliseum was surrounded by nothing but shifting sand. He'd have to convince one of the spectators to give him a lift, and that meant staying visible in the tournament.  
  
Cloud sighed. It was time to talk to the goat.

* * *

Phil had seen him fight, but now he insisted that Cloud go through hero training just "so I can see what you can do."  
  
Right. Phil's training was useless, unless you needed to prepare for the day when power-hungry wooden barrels tried to take over the universe.  
  
"Ready?" Phil asked. "You've got thirty seconds."  
  
Twenty barrels were arranged across the stadium. All but two were set in a fairly straight line.  
  
"Start counting," Cloud said. He waited until Phil turned the timer over and the first grains trickled to the other half of the glass, then stooped to tug at his boot.  
  
"Hey, hey, kid. Better get going. Time's a-wasting."  
  
Cloud silently counted out fifteen seconds while he fiddled with his boots. Then he transformed--another four seconds gone--and flew across the course, destroying eighteen barrels in one sweep and following through with a spin that sent the last two barrels crashing into the stadium walls.  
  
He returned to Phil and stopped the timer before the last grain fell. He lowered his sword, letting its tip almost touch the little goat's belly.  
  
"Don't make me play with any more barrels," he said.  
  
Phil backed away from his sword. "I think I've got a place for you in the Hercules Cup. How about that?"

* * *

Cloud wasn't having much luck with the spectators. He considered trying to get a ride with some of the other combatants, but most of them were Heartless.  
  
There was Hercules, but this was his world. He wasn't going anywhere. And there was that boy, Sora. He seemed friendly, and he looked at Cloud with something like awe in his eyes. The kid would probably be willing to help. But his companions--especially the duck--eyed Cloud with distrust. He didn't try. Besides, it was best to leave a kid like that alone. Cloud was no role model.  
  
Days turned into weeks, and Cloud hid his impatience behind a stoic facade. Then, one day, he saw a strange man talking to Phil.  
  
"Who's that?" he asked Hercules.  
  
"Huh? Who?" The big guy was busy styling his hair. Cloud ought to introduce him to hair gel so he wouldn't fuss with it so often.  
  
"The guy with all the belts," Cloud said, nodding in his direction.  
  
Hercules glanced over. "Oh, that's Leon. He and his partner fight in the Pegasus Cup. He uses a Gunblade."  
  
A Gunblade? "So he's not from around here?"  
  
"No, but he fights here regularly." Hercules looked around. "Do you have a mirror? How do I look?"  
  
Cloud suggested he use one of the trophies in the lobby for a mirror. He headed towards Phil and the stranger, but then, a familiar-looking girl joined them. He stopped.  
  
It took a moment to place her. Khaki shorts and a crop top, black hair in a pixie cut and a gently-pointed chin, dark eyes just a little too big for her face... It was Yuffie Kisaragi, looking exactly like she had the last time Cloud had seen her. But that was impossible.  
  
He'd spent most of the last nine years in the Underworld, where no one aged because--as Hades said--death was eternal. Cloud didn't think it was eternal so much as stagnant. Bodies didn't change in the Underworld, and for the most part, people didn't either.  
  
Yuffie, though, she would have changed. She'd be a woman by now.  
  
Still, he stared at the Yuffie-look-alike. She got into an agitated conversation with Phil, bending at the waist at one point so she could get right up in his face. Finally, she threw her hands up in disgust and stomped off.  
  
The girl even acted like Yuffie. It was uncanny.  
  
He approached the two men--well, the man and the satyr. "Is there a problem?" he asked.  
  
"Women!" Phil spat. "I never should have let them into the Coliseum!"  
  
"Is she a competitor?"  
  
"She's my partner," the belted man said. He had a smoothly-healed scar across his brow. It seemed too pretty to be a battle wound. "She's a ninja."  
  
Yuffie was a ninja, too--this was a little unnerving.  
  
Phil hopped about at their feet. "I don't care if she's a ninja, she's too weak for the Hades Cup!"  
  
"The what?" Cloud asked.  
  
"Hades," the man explained, "wants to sponsor a special tournament. Philoctetes here doesn't think she's up to it." He frowned down at Phil.  
  
"But Cloud--Cloud would be perfect," Phil said. "That's it! You guys are partners."  
  
The man held his hand out to Cloud. "I'm Leon."  
  
"I fight alone," Cloud said.  
  
"Not anymore, you don't," Phil said. "Now, I'm busy, so beat it."

* * *

It wasn't bad fighting alongside Leon. They weren't partners and they didn't work in concert, but they didn't get in each other's way. It was hard to get information out of him, but before too long, Cloud learned that Leon's partner was Yuffie, a girl he'd been looking out for since she was seven.  
  
It was too much of a coincidence, even if it was all wrong.  
  
Leon told him that his world had been destroyed when he was a teenager. He'd ended up in a place called Traverse Town with two young girls who were also refugees from his planet. Like a big brother, he'd raised them, and now they were working to restore their world.  
  
"We're getting close," he said. "A boy named Sora recently discovered what's left of our world."  
  
"I know Sora," Cloud told him. "We've fought."  
  
Leon nodded. "He's the Keyblade Master."  
  
Cloud didn't care much about Keyblades, but just then, Yuffie entered the locker room. She circled around Cloud, eyeing him up and down. If she knew him, she wasn't letting on to it.  
  
"So this is your new partner?"  
  
"Hey, Yuffie, it's nice to met you," he said, watching her eyes. "I'm Cloud."  
  
There wasn't even a flicker of recognition in her eyes.  
  
"I guess you could do worse," she told Leon. "But come on, let's go. Aerith's missing us by now."  
  
Aerith? His heart raced with a jolt of adrenaline.  
  
"Aerith Gainsborough?"  
  
Leon and Yuffie turned to him in surprise. "You know her?" 


	2. What Else Would I Be Drinking?

**Not Like They Used To**  
**Chapter 2: What Else Would I Be Drinking?**

Cid took the long way to the Third District. Leon had sent one of the Moogles with a message for him. Which one of the Moogles, Cid couldn't say. Moogle names all sounded the same to him, just like all Moogles looked the same. To him, they were all Mug--the little guy who helped out at the shop sometimes and loved to gossip about the latest tournament. Cid liked Mug; his name made him nostalgic for beer.  
  
Leon's note urged him to come to their headquarters as soon as possible, but Cid didn't see the need to hurry. He knew what they wanted. Ever since they'd discovered Hollow Bastion, they'd been after him to ferry them back and forth.  
  
It was his fault. He didn't mind lending them the Highwind for a quick hop over to the Coliseum, but he didn't trust them with his baby on such a long trip--warp drive or no warp drive. He took the necessary navigation gummi out of his ship before he let them have it.  
  
He could have made it easy on himself by staying at Hollow Bastion like Aerith did. Maybe then, Leon and Yuffie would stay put, too. But he didn't want to.  
  
He didn't care what they said. Maybe that castle was the very last remnant of their world, but it wasn't his home. It never would be. There was something wrong with the place--just like there was something wrong with Yuffie and Aerith...  
  
Cid turned the corner, and three Wyverns swooped down on him. He altered his grip on his spear and leapt at the nearest one. Man, he loved fighting these high-flying ones. He may be old, but he was fit, and there was nothing like jumping high into the air to battle both gravity and one's enemies. The feeling was a song in his veins, proof that the blood of famous dragoons still flowed through the Highwind clan--even if he was the last of them.  
  
It was a dance. Venus Gospel twisted and whirled through the air, an extension of himself. She was the perfect dancing partner, beautiful and deadly.  
  
In a few minutes, it was over. He was glad he'd switched to using Venus when the Heartless had grown stronger. She was his best weapon--and the only pole arm he dared to call a she.  
  
Cid grinned and rubbed a hand through his hair, reaching out of habit for the pack of cigarettes he kept tucked in the band of his goggles. Only the cigarettes weren't there, of course.  
  
He cursed under his breath and entered the Third District. At the small house that served as their headquarters, he rapped on the door and pushed it open without waiting.  
  
"Hey, old man."  
  
Leon greeted him, but Cid wasn't listening. Before the door was fully open, something leapt in his chest at the sight of a crimson cape and the glint of a golden gauntlet--and then fell like lead in his gut when he saw spiky blonde hair instead of the anticipated black.  
  
The door hit him as it swung back on its hinges and knocked him out of his shocked stillness. "What the fuck?" he growled. "What is this?"  
  
Kairi stared at him like a startled fawn, and Yuffie stepped quickly around their guest. "Cid," she began, her voice chiding.  
  
Cid spat and spun on his heel. "I'm out of--" The door slammed behind him. "--here."  
  
"Wow!" Yuffie said, bounding over to the door. "I didn't know it could slam so hard. Did you?"  
  
The house's other three occupants ignored her.  
  
"You didn't tell me he was here," Cloud said.  
  
Leon's slouch against the wall shifted minutely. Cloud supposed it was the man's version of a shrug. Cloud wasn't particularly communicative himself, but Leon's reticence bugged him--even though he was grateful that his search for Aerith was nearly over.  
  
"You should have said something."  
  
"I thought you knew him," Leon said.  
  
"Didn't you recognize his ship?" Yuffie asked. "Everyone around here knows the Highwind."  
  
"When I knew him," Cloud said, "the Highwind wasn't a gummi ship. It was a real ship--of real metal--with Lady Luck painted on its side."  
  
"So we made a mistake. Big deal," Yuffie said.  
  
Cloud began unbuckling his gauntlet. "If he's your friend," he told Leon, "you should have given us both some warning."  
  
"Why's that?" Leon asked.  
  
Cloud glanced at Yuffie. She should know why--only she was too young and didn't know anything she should have. "Does the name Sephiroth mean anything to you?"  
  
Both of them shook their heads. No.  
  
"Well... suffice it to say that the man I got this from--" He held up the gauntlet. "--was a very close friend of Cid's."  
  
"Named Sephiroth?" Leon said.  
  
"No. That was someone else." Cloud took off his cloak and wrapped it around the gauntlet. "Where does Cid live?"  
  
"First District." Leon straightened out of his slouch. "I can take you there."  
  
"I can handle it," Cloud said.  
  
After searching for Aerith across countless worlds, finding Cid in one little town would be a piece of cake.

* * *

Cid was sitting at an outside table in a nearly-deserted cafe. Cloud checked its sign. _Cafe & Bar_.  
  
The citizens of Traverse Town seemed an unimaginative lot. Everything had a label instead of a name. The only shop he'd seen that he hadn't instantly known what it sold was a little place called _Gepetto_. It had flowers painted on its door frame, though, so maybe it was a florist's.  
  
It was a wonder he hadn't found Cid sitting under a sign reading _Cid's Chair_. Cloud plunked the bundled cloak down in front of him. Cid didn't react.  
  
Cloud snagged a chair from the next table and sat down.  
  
"Is he dead, then?" Cid asked without looking Cloud's way.  
  
"I don't know."  
  
Cid twirled his glass slowly in his hands. Cloud watched the puddle of condensation under it spread. It reached the edge of the red cloak and turned the cloth as dark as clotted blood. He looked away then, and studied the changes in his friend.  
  
His first impression wasn't a mistake. Cid seemed about as old as he should be. He was broader than Cloud remembered. Some of that was muscle--Cid's biceps were huge. But most of it was that bulk that men attain sometime in their thirties when they've put their youth behind them once and for all.  
  
"How old are you now?"  
  
Cid laughed. "So you noticed that, eh? Not everyone does." He met Cloud's eyes with an approving look. "Want something to drink?"  
  
"Thanks." Cloud nodded.  
  
"Hey, Bridget!" Cid called to a woman in a green skirt and a low-cut blouse. "Get a drink for my friend here."  
  
The woman crossed her arms under her breasts. "It's Blythe," she said.  
  
"What?"  
  
"My name," she said through clenched teeth. "It's Blythe."  
  
Cid blinked. "What? Isn't it Brenda?"  
  
"No, it isn't!" She turned to Cloud. "What do you want?"  
  
"Whatever he's having."  
  
"Hmph!" She swept away.  
  
"Bring another for me, Darling!" Cid called after her. He locked his hands behind his neck and rocked his chair back on two legs.  
  
"You're still not very good with women, are you?" Cloud asked.  
  
"Oh, her? I know what her name is. She's just such a snippy bitch, I like to rile her up."  
  
Cloud shook his head. "You're playing with fire."  
  
"An old man's got to do something for excitement."  
  
Cloud leaned forward. "And just how old are you?"

* * *

It wasn't Cid's favorite topic these days, but it beat the hell out of discussing just what Cloud Strife was doing with Vincent Valentine's possessions.  
  
Before he could answer, Blythe returned with their drinks. She gave Cloud his, then set Cid's down so hard it sloshed over the side.  
  
"That's two fifty," she said.  
  
"When did they raise the price?"  
  
"It's a compulsory tip. Just for you." She held her hand out.  
  
"Well, Beatrice darling, it's a good thing I'm a wealthy man." He gave her three hundred and winked at Cloud when she stormed off.  
  
Cloud shook his head again, then picked up his glass. Cid waited--and he didn't have long to wait. Cloud sipped his drink, then held it out and squinted at it.  
  
"This is apple juice!"  
  
It sure was. Traverse Town was dry, and apple juice was the hardest drink a man could get.  
  
Cid raised his eyebrows at Cloud. "What else would I drink at a juice bar?"  
  
"No wonder you're bored." Cloud frowned at his glass.  
  
"Just be glad I wasn't drinking prune juice, kid."  
  
Cloud's frown deepened, but he took another sip.  
  
"Now, to answer your question... the best I can figure, I'm forty two--give or take a year." Cid paused for a reaction, but didn't get one. "And how I remember it--but maybe that's not saying much--you were a lot older the last time I saw you."  
  
"Was I?"  
  
The kid looked curious, but not disbelieving. Cid nodded and decided to continue.  
  
"For that matter, I was older, too, the last time I saw you... Now it's possible that the Moogles are drugging me and what I'm remembering was one far out trip--"  
  
"Wait. The Moogles are what?"  
  
"Drugging me." Cid rolled up his sleeve and tapped his arm just below a bright pink patch with a smiling Chocobo face on it. "The Moogles synthesized me these nicotine patch things." Traverse Town was dry **and** smoke-free. "And I'm no scientist, so who knows what all they put in here. Right? I could be completely off my rocker."  
  
"You can't be serious." Cloud stared at the patch.  
  
"I'm not, kid. But Little Miss Ninja sure was."  
  
"Yuffie."  
  
"Who else?" Cid downed the last of his first glass of juice. "That was her theory when I took her aside one day to ask if something seemed... off to her. If maybe she thought that perhaps--"  
  
"Aerith should be dead." The words were quiet, but spoken with conviction.  
  
Cid met Cloud's gaze and felt something shift in his chest--like maybe the Heartless had stolen a tiny piece of his heart and left a rock-like chunk of doubt in its place, a chunk that Cloud had just dislodged.  
  
"Exactly," Cid said.  
  
"And Yuffie should be older, shouldn't she?"  
  
Cid nodded.  
  
"And when you last saw me, when was that?"  
  
Cid picked up his second glass and examined it for a moment. "Twelve years after we defeated Sephiroth."  
  
"Was I--" Cloud stopped and glanced around like he was about to say something embarrassing. "Was I happy?"  
  
"Look, kid--"  
  
Cloud held up his hand. "I know. I know it's not a life that I'm ever going to live now. Fate led me down a different path--and I followed her willingly enough. But--"  
  
"Yeah," Cid answered. "I'd say you were more happy than not."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
They sat and drank quietly for a while. If Cid sat long enough, he could sometimes make himself almost believe he was nursing a beer at his favorite place in Rocket Town. Yeah. Right now he was drinking beer and smoking a cigarette, and his long-time partner, Vincent, was busy across the table from him, brooding up a storm.  
  
Cid fingered the ragged cape in front of him. Actually, after twelve years, even a master like Vincent couldn't brood up much more than a brief summer shower on most days. And if he remembered correctly, they'd thrown out this cape years ago.  
  
_Nothing stays the same, old man. Nothing._  
  
"So," Cid said. "Aerith, huh? They sure don't make death like they used to."  
  
Cloud choked on his drink. Cid pounded on his back until he could speak.  
  
"Cid," he gasped. "You have no idea." 


	3. Theories from a Circus Freak

**Not Like They Used To**  
**Chapter 3: Theories from a Circus Freak**

Cloud wanted to go somewhere else. He didn't know where, but it didn't feel right to be telling his story in such a public place.  
  
It was strange to be telling his story at all--except not really, not to Cid... Not to Cid or Barret or T--his mind shied away from finishing that thought--or any of the others. Not back before they had learned about Jenova. Not when his own history had him so confused that he'd had to share it in hopes that someone could make sense of it for him.  
  
They left the cafe and walked aimlessly through the First District until Cid snapped his fingers. "You used to sit on the water tower."  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
"The water tower, in Nibelheim? With Tifa?"  
  
"Oh," Cloud said. Well, he couldn't avoid thinking about her forever.  
  
"If you don't mind a few fights, follow me."  
  
Cid led him to the Second District, through a strange shop full of gears and electric lights, up a ladder, and across the rooftops.  
  
"Here," Cid said after they cleared one roof of Search Ghosts. He pointed up at the stars. "How's this?"  
  
"Not bad."  
  
Cid gave him a hard look, and Cloud was glad for the dimness Traverse Town's perpetual night.  
  
"Tifa..." Cid said.  
  
"Is dead," Cloud answered. She'd arrived in the Underworld some time after he had. Only, she was supposed to be there.  
  
"Ah." Cid flopped down on the shingles and scratched his chin. After a moment, he dug through his pockets and produced a piece of straw which he clamped in his mouth. Cloud supposed that not even the nicotine patch could change the habits of a lifetime.  
  
"You married her," Cid said.  
  
Cloud didn't want to imagine it. He walked to the edge of the roof and peered out at the courtyard below.  
  
"Together you opened up a new bar. Called it 'Lockheart's'--I guess you knew a place called 'Strife' wouldn't get much business. Of course," Cid added, "after three years you divorced."  
  
Cloud could well believe that. "Did we?"  
  
"Yeah, and a good thing it was, too. You couldn't stand each other. But afterwards, you were really good friends."  
  
Cloud cleared his throat. "That sounds about right."  
  
"Yeah," Cid said and stretched out full length to stare up at the stars. "Yeah. It felt right."  
  
Cloud glanced at the sky, but the stars were all wrong--there was nothing comforting in an alien sky. He balanced on the very edge of the roof and wished that the building were taller. He wished for the Shinra building, to be poised nearly seventy stories above a sudden hard landing.  
  
Even that didn't help. He no longer had any reason to fear falling. He sighed and went back to sit next to Cid.  
  
"Do you know," Cid said conversationally, "how fucked up it is when your past history is only a possible future--a mighty unlikely possible future--to everyone else?"  
  
"Do you know," Cloud answered, "how fucked up it is when your past history is only a pack of lies cooked up by a mad scientist, a megalomaniac, and your own Mako-hazed subconsciousness?"  
  
Cid grunted. "Touché."  
  
"I should think so."  
  
They let a moment pass in silence. Then Cid rolled onto his side and looked at him. "Well?"  
  
Cloud was with Vincent the day their world was destroyed. By chance, they'd met at a weapons dealer's shop. Vincent had been buying ammo, and Cloud had been looking for a birthday present for Tifa. They'd been talking when all hell broke lose.  
  
They ran through the city, helping everyone they could. Far ahead, Cloud saw the Highwind's engines fire to life. He turned to Vincent--who should have been just behind him--and saw him running back the way they'd come.  
  
There was a boy there. Cloud remembered him with perfect clarity. He couldn't have been more than five or six, his hair was an unusual silvery white, and he was being swallowed up by the Darkness. Instead of panicking or struggling, the boy was still, letting the Darkness ebb and flow around him. And the Darkness seemed strangely slow to take him. It had only coiled itself around his left leg when Vincent reached him.  
  
Vincent grabbed the boy's shoulder, and Cloud saw the boy's eyes for the first time. They were a luminous Mako green. A tidal wave of Darkness suddenly welled up around them, and Cloud flung himself after them. "Vincent!" he shouted. "Don't--"  
  
He'd woken up in the Underworld, Vincent's cloak and gauntlet beside him.  
  
"The day the Darkness came," Cloud said, "I was somehow thrown into the Underworld."  
  
"No shit?"  
  
"No shit, I swear."  
  
"Fuck..."  
  
Cloud smiled at Cid's eloquence. Some things never changed.  
  
"It wasn't bad. It felt... a lot like being in the Lifestream."  
  
"Huh."  
  
"Like maybe the Underworld is just a gathering place for many planets' Lifestreams... or something. I don't know, I don't think we're supposed to understand it."  
  
"But you weren't dead?"  
  
"No," Cloud said. "I wasn't. But..." How did one explain it?  
  
"Hey, kid, don't clam up on me now, okay?"  
  
Cloud traced the shingles under his hands. The corner of one was broken, and he rubbed his thumb over it until splinters bit into his skin.  
  
"I wanted--I thought... I thought I should stay there. Because of Aerith and Sephiroth and... all that business. I thought I belonged there with them."  
  
Cid sat up. "But Aerith--"  
  
"She wasn't there. She should have been there--I should have been able to find her."  
  
It had been ages before he accepted that Aerith simply wasn't there. And then there had been dealing with Hades...  
  
"I guess the destruction of a world creates too great an influx for the Underworld to handle all at once. It took them a while to sort out who belonged there and who didn't. And then Hades packed up all of us misfits to ship us out."  
  
"You met Hades himself?"  
  
More than just met, but that was another story, for another day.  
  
"Yes," Cloud said. "I did. Anyway, one of the misfits was this strange little man. He called himself Doctor Odine, and you wouldn't believe it, but he made Hojo seem perfectly normal."  
  
"Damn right, I wouldn't."  
  
"He looked like a circus freak, but he was a scientist. He told me this story about time compression that was..." Cloud stopped and tugged on a lock of his hair. "I don't know. Either it was absolutely brilliant or it was the stupidest thing I have ever heard."  
  
"'Time compression'?"  
  
"That's what he called it. But now, he was studying... 'The Effects of Darkness-Induced Dimensional Rifts on Space, Time, and Causality.'"  
  
"What the fuck does that mean?"  
  
"I don't know. I might not have gotten it right, but he had this theory--"  
  
Cloud grabbed Vincent's cloak and rolled it into a tight ball. "Okay, this is the Darkness." He tossed it to Cid.  
  
"No," Cid said. "This is a ragged old cape."  
  
"Look, will you just play along?"  
  
Cid tossed the ball high. It unfurled in the air and fluttered back down, spreading over Cid's legs much like the Darkness might.  
  
"Okay, Leader, I'll play."  
  
He hadn't been called that in a long time. Cloud swallowed.  
  
"When Darkness eats away at a planet, it starts small and gets bigger." Cloud tapped the cloak.  
  
"Duh," Cid said.  
  
"Dr. Odine's theory was that Darkness expanded on more than three dimensions."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"That while it's spreading geographically over a planet, it's also eating its way--backwards and forwards--through Time."  
  
Cid blinked.  
  
"And at the... I think he called it the horizon?" Cloud held out the hem of the cloak. "At the Darkness's horizon, two adjacent points may actually be at two completely different times.  
  
"But," Cloud rushed on before Cid could speak. "Past, present, and future can interact at the horizon because of their physical proximity."  
  
"And you think he's right?"  
  
Cloud hadn't, but... He pointed to a spot on the hem. "Twelve years after we defeated Sephiroth."  
  
He moved his finger a centimeter over. "One year after we defeated Sephiroth. That's when I think our world was destroyed," he explained.  
  
He moved his finger again. "Well before Yuffie first met us." And again. "When Sephiroth was five years old."  
  
"What does Sephiroth have to do with this?" Cid asked.  
  
Cloud dropped the cloak into Cid's lap. "Maybe nothing."  
  
"And if this doc is right, that means--"  
  
"We're fucked," Cloud said.


	4. Male Bonding and Poultry

**Not Like They Used To**  
**Chapter 4: Male Bonding and Poultry**

Man, were they fucked.  
  
Cid didn't want to believe Cloud's theory, but it explained why he'd come away from the Darkness younger than he should have been. It would explain Aerith and Yuffie, too--but not quite. For nine years now, it had bugged him. Why did he remember their adventure with Cloud and everything that came afterward? Why didn't they remember?  
  
And now... If Sora succeeded, and their world was restored, which _when_ would it be restored to? They wouldn't even be hoping for the same _when_, would they?  
  
What were the chances that Aerith would be so willing to die a second time 'round? And no offence to the girl, but Cid had lived twelve good years that he wasn't ready to sacrifice just to give Aerith a second chance at life.  
  
And Tifa--Cid hadn't been close to her, but _Lockheart's_ had served a damned fine beer and it didn't seem right that Tifa should be dead while Aerith lived.  
  
And Vincent--  
  
Cid winced. He didn't really want to think about this. It was bound to hurt but good.  
  
Thanks to the miracles of modern--well, not-so-modern anymore--stasis technology, Vincent was considerably older than Cid. Every year of Vincent's life before they had met, increased the chances that Vincent--if he were still alive--would not remember him. Shit. He didn't like those odds.  
  
How would he bear it if Vincent looked at him the same way Yuffie and Aerith had when they first arrived in Traverse Town?  
  
Still... a lousy chance to get back what he'd had was better than no chance at all.  
  
"What do we do?"  
  
"I'm not sure," Cloud said. "I'm not sure there's anything we can do."  
  
"Fuck that. We won't know until we try, right?"  
  
"Well..."  
  
"Give it up, kid. I know you're not the type to sit around on your thumbs."  
  
"I don't even know where to begin."  
  
"So? Just--"  
  
Cloud grabbed Cid's arm just above the elbow. "Instead of yelling at me, how about telling me where you'd start."  
  
Cloud let go, and Cid rubbed his arm. The kid had a hell of a grip.  
  
"Well?" Cloud asked.  
  
"Vincent," Cid said. Maybe that was selfish, but he should at least get points for being honest about his priorities.  
  
"You'd look for Vincent?"  
  
"No." Cid grinned. "I'd **find** Vincent. Everything else will work out from there."  
  
"And if he's dead?"  
  
"He's not. You said it yourself."  
  
"I said I didn't know."  
  
"So I fucking read between the lines!" If Cloud had thoroughly searched the Underworld for Aerith, wouldn't he have bumped into Vincent if he was hanging around down there?  
  
"You shouldn't--"  
  
"Look, if he's dead, no problem. I tell him he's spent too much of his life in a coffin already and I'm going to nag him until he stops being such a broody old dead guy."  
  
"And that'll work?"  
  
"Oh, yeah, he hates it when I nag."  
  
Cloud laughed.  
  
"Hey, I'm not joking. He wouldn't go to the grave without enough breath to tell me 'You're not my mother' one last time."  
  
Cloud shook his head. "Okay, so death is not a problem. What if he's like Yuffie--what if he doesn't remember you?"  
  
That wasn't going to happen. It couldn't happen.  
  
"Then... I kidnap him, find a nice out-of-the-way planet, and settle down to... to... raise Chocobos with my unwilling hostage."  
  
"Okay." Cloud lay back against the roof and tucked his hands under his head. "You've convinced me."  
  
"Convinced you? Of what? That I'm off my rocker?"  
  
"I'll do it with you," Cloud said.  
  
"You'll...?"  
  
"I'll find Vincent with you."  
  
Cid felt caught between asking if Cloud was crazy and demanding that they leave right now. "Hey," he said, and his voice shook. He tried again.  
  
"What convinced you? No, don't tell me. It had to be the Chocobos, right?"  
  
"I liked raising Chocobos," Cloud said. "It could be a good life."  
  
It could be the best. Cid lay back against the roof, too. "As long as we could race them," he said.  
  
"Of course."  
  
"Remember our first Gold Chocobo?"  
  
"_Dawn's Gold_," Cloud said.  
  
"Yeah. She was a damn fine bird," Cid said. "A real pleasure to ride."  
  
"And she outclassed Joe's Black Chocobo by so much, he wasn't seeing anything but her tracks for a week."  
  
"What's this?" A girl's voice broke in. "Some secret male-bonding ceremony where you lie around talking about poultry?"  
  
"Shit, Yuffie," Cid said, doing his best to hide how startled he'd been. "Didn't your father ever tell you 'curiosity killed the ninja'?"  
  
"Blah, blah, blah, old man. I'm here for Cloud."  
  
Cloud sat up. "Chocobos aren't poultry. They're livestock."  
  
"Birds are birds," Yuffie replied.  
  
"Hey, Cloud," Cid said. "Did I ever tell you about the Sorceress of Wutai?"  
  
"Wutai didn't have a sorceress!" Yuffie snapped.  
  
"It was a secret. Only your father knew who she was."  
  
Yuffie stomped her foot. "I don't think so."  
  
"Yeah, Cloud, so one day I'm drinking in Turtle's Paradise--you remember the place?"  
  
"With all the fliers," Cloud said.  
  
"That's it exactly. So there I am, and Lord Godo walks in and joins me. The man had a lot of troubles on his mind, what with his daughter being a thief and all--"  
  
"Hey!"  
  
Cid ignored her. "So maybe he drank a little too much, and he told me this story about back during the war. You see, he was afraid that Wutai didn't have enough soldiers--it was only a little island, after all."  
  
"It wasn't little!"  
  
"So, he thought of this woman his father had told him about, a great sorceress living in hiding. He went to her to beg for help. She told him that the last thing he needed was a Sorceress War, but if he would gather all the stray cats on the island, she'd make sure he had enough soldiers.  
  
"So, he gathered them all up, and she cast a spell that turned them all into ninjas. Only the spell wasn't perfect, you see. For one hour each day, the ninjas reverted back into cats. And that's why," Cid said, "there was that house in Wutai full of nothing but cats."  
  
"That's a lie," Yuffie said.  
  
"And that's why, Lord Godo told me, his daughter was a Materia thief--"  
  
"What!" Yuffie squealed. "I never stole Materia from you!"  
  
"But you have stolen stuff from my shop," Cid said.  
  
"That was for practice! I always gave it back."  
  
Cid turned to Cloud. "You see, she's actually a transformed kitten, and she still has a cat's fascination with bright, shiny objects."  
  
Cloud chuckled. "That so?"  
  
"Honest truth."  
  
"Oh really," Yuffie said. "How stupid do you think we are?"  
  
"Well--"  
  
Cloud interrupted him. "What are you doing here, Yuffie?"  
  
"Kairi sent me. It's getting late and she's worried that you don't have a place to spend the night."  
  
"There's a hotel," Cloud said.  
  
"Never any vacancies," Cid told him.  
  
"Oh."  
  
"Leon said you can stay with us."  
  
And wouldn't that be interesting? Two men, two girls, and that one tiny bed...  
  
"I didn't consider..." Cloud said.  
  
"Look, kid, if you don't mind the Moogle snores, there's a perfectly nice couch in my shop."  
  
"'Moogle snores'?" Cloud laughed.  
  
"They're not bad at all," Cid explained. "Quiet and kind of high-pitched, and really... well, they're rather cute."  
  
Yuffie stared at him.  
  
"What? Can't an old guy think something's cute?"  
  
"You're weird," Yuffie said. "Were you always this way or is it a sign of aging?"  
  
"He always was," Cloud said. "Yuffie, will you please thank Kairi and Leon for me? And tell them I'll see them in the morning?"  
  
"Oh, fine." Yuffie turned back to Cid. "We need a ride in the morning. We wanted to go tonight, but--"  
  
"Yeah, yeah, I know what you wanted."  
  
"Okay. Bye." Yuffie cartwheeled, then flipped backwards off the roof--the little show-off.  
  
"Couch?" Cid asked Cloud.  
  
"Yes, thank you."  
  
They jumped down from the roof--albeit less dramatically than the ninja had--and headed toward the accessory shop.  
  
"Did you make up that story just now?" Cloud asked.  
  
"What, the ninja cats? 'Course I did. There weren't any sorceresses in Wutai."  
  
"No, I meant did you make it up just now or have you had it in your arsenal for a while."  
  
"Oh. It was just now."  
  
"Impressive," Cloud said.  
  
Cid grinned. "I learned from masters, kid. There ain't no better liars in the universe than old fishermen and old pilots."  
  
"You'll have to teach me."  
  
Cid threw his arm around Cloud's shoulders and pat his shoulder guard companionably. "That's just what I'm doing, kid."


End file.
